So yea... got this crap little computer for my parents. Dirt cheap Compaq Presario 5004ca I think. Heres the problem. The computer freezes, then a second or 2 later the monitor cuts out. Then the monitor cuts back in and the computer is no longer frozen. But its like the monitor just stops displaying anything and freezes the frame, not like the computer actually stops responding. If I'm watching a video the audio keeps going while the screen freezes, then the monitor cuts out and comes back on a few seconds later and the video is still playing and the audio was playing the whole time... An old, old computer before this would have skipping/looping audio when it froze. So I'm thinking its the vid card. Trying to load a VERY low sys req. game would make the computer restart... so I went to Display Properties > Settings > Advanced > Troubleshoot and turned the hardware accel. to medium setting... the game would then load with no troubles but the monitor still freezes and cuts out and then resumes. So yea... judging from the evidence, am I right to assume the vid card needs replacing? or is it something else. I'd rather not spend $20 on a vid card that won't do anything... since the comp is just so crappy to begin with. I know I sound cheap but they only need the comp for email/facebook/youtube... nothing else at all really.
From what you have said it does sound like the video card is dead or about to die. But it could be that the video card is overclocked. check to make sure it isnt and also download the latest updates for yor pc and video card.
got the latest drivers... its not OC'd.. I wasn't sure if it was a PSU problem or a GPU problem so I figured I'd ask afterdawn users opinions first.
